"Me too," added Phil.
"Must 'a got some new kind of motor aboard that is silent," suggested Jack.
"J-j-just a-goin' to s-s-say that, when Jack t-t-took the w-w-words out of m-m-my m-m-mouth," Bluff exploded.
"No trouble doin' that, Bluff," laughed Bobolink. "If that aeroplane did climb up out of that field, while we pushed through the heavy timber, and none of us heard a thing, let me tell you, boys, they've got a cracker-jack of a motor, that's what!"
"But arrah! would ye be thinkin' that a lot of bog-trottin' counterfeiters'd be havin' a rale aeroplane?" burst out Andy Flinn, who had up to now been unable to give any expression to his feelings.
"I'd say these fellers must be a pretty tony lot, that's all,"
Bobolink declared.
"Whatever do you suppose they use such a machine for?" asked Tom.
Again all eyes were turned upon Paul, as the oracle of the group of wondering scouts. He shrugged his shoulders, as if he thought he had as much right as any of the others to admit that he was puzzled.
"Well, we'd have to make a stab at guessing that," he observed. "Any one thing of half a dozen might be the truth. An aeroplane could be used for carrying the stuff they make up here to a distant market. Then again, it might be only a sort of plaything, or hobby, of the chief money-maker; something he amuses himself with, to take his mind off business. All men have hobbies—fishing, hunting, horse racing, golf—why couldn't this chap take to flying for his fun?"
"That sounds good to me," declared Bobolink; "anyhow, we know he must be a kind of high-flier."